Field of Heroes 5k Race Report

Race Info

At this time last year I was in great shape, having completed three marathons and two 50ks in the four or so weeks leading up to this race.
That allowed me to complete first female in 2016, much to my surprise.
This year the Georgia Death Race threw off my training a bit, it occurred only two months before this race.
GDR was a distance PR for me of ~74 miles.
As such I took the month of April very easy, and although I did one 50k and a marathon, I wasn't running much during the week.
I listened to my body and took it a day at a time.

But suddenly May came and went and my summer race club was starting up.
The new schedule consists of many shorter distances.
Oh, and I haven't done speedwork since the fall before I started training for Georgia Death Race.

Leading up to this race I actually had nightmares where I was trying to run as fast as I could but I was still only running a 40 minute 5k.
Then I would get lost which added more time in my dreams.
I was nervous knowing that I wasn't going to run anything close to what I had ran the prior year.
Unfortunately I wasn't going to get any faster by sitting at home and stressing so put it off to the back of my mind.

Race Morning

This race finishes through 3,000 American Flags that are put up over Memorial Day weekend.
I ran this race in memory of Todd Werley with his 22 Too Many image pinned to my back.

A post shared by Nicole Huston (@bonktothefinish) on May 28, 2017 at 8:51am PDT

Before the start I met with my race club for a quick team photo.
My rough goal was to run between a 21:30 and 22:30 5k.
Afterwards we all headed towards the start where I met some new runners, one of which was trying to run around the same pace as me.

Before I knew it the race was off!
The course of this race is very similar to the First of the First 5k that I run every year.
One major difference is that this race goes through a fire station.
For me this is the stand out feature of this course (behind the 3,000 flags obviously).
Firefighters and other spectators are cheering for you as you run through and it is a very cool detour during the race.

As I was running I noticed my body was acting very differently than it did last year.
My legs were holding me back, while my breathing and heart rate were ok.
I could not push my legs any faster than they were going which was a weird feeling.
Usually it is my breathing that is holding me back.

I slowly made my way into the finish.

Final Time: 22:40

Ok, so 10 seconds slower than the range I was hoping to finish this race in.
But I'll take it.
Time to spend my summer improving my speed and hopefully getting back to the speed I was at this time last year.

Race Collections

I like getting the reusable shopping bag every year at this race.
I thought the medal was VERY cool this year too.
The race did have gender specific sizing but I picked up a shirt for James instead as I am currently trying to downsize on race shirts.